


Pretty

by Thatonegothynerd



Series: Teaghan and Team Goth [2]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 17:51:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19431061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatonegothynerd/pseuds/Thatonegothynerd
Summary: After a romp through the sewers of Emon and a double crossing scandal, Team Goth has returned to the home of Alistair's uncle, Leo Connington, to deliver the traitor. Teaghan, however, is more focused on Alistair's cousin, Stefan than any potential rewards.





	Pretty

Pretty. He was so pretty. Teaghan had noticed that from the first moment she saw Stefan, bloodies and unconscious on the sewer floor. Even then, his hair was a luminous shade of gold and his features so beautifully refined, no sewer setting or bloody nose could take that away. He was even more pretty conscious, when his bright blue eyes watched her from across the room. Watched all of them. There was a sharpness there, Teaghan noticed, of someone adept at observing others, of trying to figure people out from a distance, and a spark of something she couldn’t quite identify, but made her heart beat just a little bit faster in her chest. 

She wasn’t sure why she spent so much time observing Stefan’s face from where he stood quietly talking with Alistair across the room. She could easily pick out the features the two shared: the same slant of their nose and cut of their cheek bones and the same azure eyes that looked around the room, but it was their differences that Teaghan was so enraptured by. Stefan’s chin length hair was swept away from his face to reveal a jaw that was more defined than his cousin’s and thicker eyebrows. Teaghan didn’t realize just how intensely she’d been observing those differences, in particular the curve of his lips, until Alistair’s uncle, Stefan’s father, came down the stairs. 

Leo Connington was a completely different being than his son. Where Stefan wore an easy, though currently slightly strained, smile - a smile that faded at his father’s approach - Leo’s mouth had a downward slope that seemed permanent. There was no spark in his eyes like that in Stefan’s, no joy in the man before her, just a calculating gaze that went to his son and his nephew before making a cursory glance over the rest of Teaghan’s friends while he talked to Alistair. 

Samson, it seemed, was worthy of making a comment to, a question about why he was here as a wizard and not taking on the family trade. He was akin to nobility himself and his name was well known in Westrun, but the rest of her group seemed unworthy of mentioning. When Leo’s gaze landed on Lo-Kag, distaste flooded his expression for a moment, then it was gone. The sweet Goliath didn't seem surprised by his response. 

Teaghan couldn’t stop herself before saying, “Lo-Kag and Samson were both very helpful.” 

Leo’s eyes didn’t so much a flick to her when she spoke. Teaghan couldn’t stand the disrespect for her friend, but fought to keep quiet. There was no use in trying to change his mind. She did not think Leo was a bad person, just one steeped with some prejudices. 

After his examination of her friends and questioning of Alistair was over, he extended to all of them his gratitude and their reward for the exposure of his daughter’s treachery: they would receive lessons in griffon riding and possibly a griffon of their own. Excitement flooded Teaghan at the prospect, but there was something more she wanted and hoped she could receive.

“The Conningtons are in your debt,” Leo said and made a move to leave. 

“Um, Mr. Connington, sir?” Teaghan said hesitantly. “Since you say you are in our debt and we were helpful and everything, I was wondering if I could ask you for something? It’s nothing complicated or expensive.”

Leo looked at her seeming to actually see her for the first time and assess her. She felt his calculating gaze but refused to flinch back from it. 

“Uncle, Teaghan was a tremendous help today. Things wouldn’t have ended quite so well without her,” Alistair said. Teaghan looked to her friend and gave him a smile of gratitude. When she looked back at Leo his face was unmoved. 

“Father,” Stefan said, looking at Teaghan as she spoke. “She brought me back from the brink of death twice today. Without her, I don’t think I would be standing here.”

Teaghan looked back at him and gave him a smile as well, slightly more shy than the one she had given Alistair. She could have sworn she saw something like approval on his face for the way she spoke to his father, for daring to speak up to him.

“Very well,” Leo said and made a motion for Teaghan to follow him. He didn’t have to tell her twice. 

…

Their conversation was short and soon Teaghan descended the stairs having achieved her goal: Leo would write a letter to his brother regarding the custody of her sisters. If the letter worked the way she hoped it would, that meant they could come live with her here, in Emon, far far away from their father’s grasp. Teaghan couldn’t help the gap toothed smile that appeared on her freckled faced as she raced down the stairs. She wanted to hug Stefan for all of his help in convincing his father, Alistair too, but feared it might be too forward. Instead before they left she decided she needed to tell him something.

“You’re very pretty,” she declared to him.

“Thank you,” he said, taken a bit aback. “You’re very pretty too.”

“Thanks,” she responded. There was a small silence after she spoke and for once Teaghan wasn’t sure what to say to fill it.

“You’re a bard, right? You perform?” he asked, still looking at her.

“Yes, I am.” 

“Where do you perform?”

“You can find me pretty much every night at The Maverick Minstrel.”

“The Maverick Minstrel,” he repeated to himself, memorizing the name. “I hope I’ll see you there some time then.”

“I hope I see you too,” she replied.

The two didn’t say much of anything after that. Goodbyes were exchanged between cousins and friends. Alistair and Millicent decided to go find Winter, Alistair’s griffon, but Teaghan was ready for a nap. 

As she walked back to the Maverick Minstrel, Lo-Kag and Samson in tow talking amongst themselves, she couldn’t take her mind off of Stefan. He seemed very nice, and he was so pretty. His face just didn’t seem to leave her mind as she walked, barely taking in the familiar city around her. This wasn’t good. She thought, just for a moment, that she might like him. This might be the feeling Kassandra had described to her so many times. She had never felt like this about another person before, never considered someone as she now considered him, and that was dangerous. She couldn’t like him, she wouldn’t. What if things progressed and she ended up playing right into her father’s hands? What if Stefan felt this too? He was exactly the type of man Teaghan was sent away for. 

“Money and status, Teaghan. You bring me back money and status in the form of a husband, or you don’t come back at all.” The words her father spoke to her years ago echoed in her head. She almost felt the sting of her long since faded bruises both hidden underneath her clothes and a single one across her cheek in the shape of a hand, as she left her childhood home for the last time, without a dollar to her name. 

Yes, Stefan had that. He was exactly what her father had wanted, rich and powerful. The name Connignton held weight across Tal’Dorei, which is why she decided she couldn’t like him. He had to be kept at an arm’s length so that her father wasn’t enabled, so that her father could never get what he wanted from her. It made her sad to think about it. The image of Stefan’s smiling face was once again in her mind and she mulled over this discovery, her face uncharacteristically dark. She had to keep him away, even if it meant losing out on the only person that had ever made her heart race. She had to keep him away, or her father might win. But in keeping him away, it was also very possible that she just might lose.


End file.
